Chicken Little
by sniggles
Summary: A "The Fall's Gonna Kill You" post-ep from CJ's POV


Title: Chicken Little  
Author: Rebecca A. Anderson  
E-mail: sniggles@claudia-jean.net  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: The Fall's Gonna Kill You  
Characters: CJ  
Category: general/post ep.  
Synopsis: A post-ep for The Fall's Gonna Kill You, from CJ's point of view.  
Archive: Sure! Just let me know where.  
  
  
  
I don't own the West Wing characters. The Evil Genius does, so... don't sue me! You'd laugh to see how little money I actually make.  
  
This is a post-ep for "The Fall's Gonna Kill You", and is from CJ's point of view.  
  
  
"Chicken Little"  
by Rebecca A. Anderson  
sniggles@claudia-jean.net  
May 2001  
  
  
"Hey, Leo, have you seen the Governor?" I asked, coming up behind Leo in the hallway.  
  
"I think he's in his suite - why?"  
  
"We're supposed to do Nightline and I just found out from Carol that Manhattan doesn't exactly have an ABC affiliate."  
  
"How far are we gonna have to go?" he asked, concerned.  
  
"Well, Topeka's got one, but it's kind of low-band, so..."  
  
"So how far are we gonna have to go? Wichita?"  
  
"Kansas City."  
  
"Oh... well, that's about two, two and a half hours away, right?"  
  
"Well, the thing is, we don't exactly have anyone who knows anything about Kansas or Missouri, let alone how to drive it," I said with a sigh, passing Leo by and heading for Governor Bartlet's suite.  
  
"What about Carol? Isn't she from Chillicothe or something?" Leo asked. "Or Garden City, or something like that?"  
  
"Okay, how you can know my assistant is from the general area of doom that is around Kansas City, and I don't, is just this short of freaky."  
  
"She's from Independence, now that I think about it..." Leo said. "She can drive."  
  
I just stared at him. "Have you ever seen her drive?"  
  
"Okay, she can navigate and you can drive."  
  
"Thank you, Leo." I turned and continued on to the suite. When I knocked, there was no answer, so I pushed open the door. I mean, I guess I figured that I could always atone by listening to Bartlet droning on and on about the principle exports of Nicaragua later if I interrupted something even vaguely important.  
  
"Jed, you can't push it," I heard Abbey say as I came in.  
  
And I could have sworn I saw....  
  
  
  
  
  
"Hey, CJ, I need to talk to you about something," Leo said.  
  
"Uh, sure - can I finish this thing with Toby first, though?"  
  
"CJ, I'll be in my office when you're done," Toby promised, waving me out with Leo.  
  
"Okay," I said, feeling a little confused. Could this maybe have something to do with Toby lying to me? Could this...  
  
And once we were in Leo's office, he closed the door and told me, "Sit down, CJ. I don't need you keeling over and hurting yourself or something. Since it's after business hours..."  
  
"Worker's comp., and all that crap?" I said with a little smirk.  
  
"Yeah... sit."  
  
I sat.  
  
"What I'm about to tell you is... well..."  
  
"Leo, I'm a big girl - spill the beans already."  
  
"About eight years ago, the President was diagnosed with a relapsing-remitting course of Multiple Sclerosis."  
  
I blinked, but otherwise had no outward reaction at all.  
  
"CJ?"  
  
"Excuse me, Leo, but I think I'm going to need you to... y'know... repeat that for me, please."  
  
"Eight years ago, the President was diagnosed with MS."  
  
"Is he... okay?"  
  
"He's fine. But I'll let him know you asked."  
  
"Who else knows?"  
  
"I won't give you the entire list right now - you'll get it soon enough. Abbey, the girls, John, Toby, Josh, Babish, me... and a few select others."  
  
"And I'm yea so low on the totem pole that I'm only finding out after... Jesus Christ, Leo, how the hell am I supposed to cover for this? How am I supposed to do my job when..."  
  
I don't remember the conversation very well after that. I do remember it involved a shouting match and me storming out to Toby's office and clobbering him upside the head, and shouting quite a bit before going back to my office to start thinking.  
  
  
  
  
I told Josh that "the fall's what's gonna kill you". I guess I've distanced myself from this, effectively cutting myself off from...  
  
Well, I can't exactly say that after having been bitch-slapped by Oliver Babish. How any woman could stand to marry that man is beyond me....  
  
And Abbey told me the truth. It was a needle and an injection in Manhattan. I hadn't just been seeing things. I had almost convinced myself that it was an allergy shot or something like that if I had, indeed, seen her giving him an injection.  
  
But it wasn't. It was something much more... well, sinister isn't the right word, but something in that vein.  
  
The sky is falling and it's going to kill us all.  
  
The fall's gonna kill us...  
  
Someone please tell me why I feel like Chicken Little all of a sudden.  
  
  
  
  
Finis  



End file.
